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“No man steps into the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” Heraclitus 535 – 475 BC It is a quote that both excites and haunts me. Read one way, this quote can speak to the life-transforming power of the [...]Read now -
A Fly Fisher's Guide to Identifying and Matching Mayflies: Part I
It could have been witnessing your first Hex hatch covering the Great Lakes like an armada of small boats, a brown trout rising to the Spring's first Sulphur mayfly on an Appalachian creek, or late summer Green Drakes bringing the river to a boil as every fish in the river seemed to be rising right [...]Read now -
Ask the River Oracle: If fishing is slow, how often should I change flies on the water?
Coast to coast, year in and year out, this is probably the question we receive the most from fly fishers. When our go-to fly patterns don't produce fish, and the hot patterns sold by the local fly shop don't get the fish to rise, when do you know it is time to change out [...]Read now -
The P.A.U.S.E. Method for Matching the Hatch
Exhale.... You've done it. You've successfully escaped the office. You've tunneled under the suburb's privacy fences, and the incessant drone cell phones and email notifications are fading into the distance behind you. In front of you lies a day without obligation and a river full of potential with the promise of [...]Read now -
How & Why to Use Weight When Fly Fishing
Like every fly fisherman, I eagerly anticipate the season when warm nights and sunny days bring fish to the surface to feed on dry flies. Living in the Rocky Mountain West, this season is regrettably shorter than I would like, with Fall frosts creeping down the mountains in early September, and the oft unpunctual [...]Read now -
Why and When to Use Fluorescent and Hi-Visibility Fly Patterns
The year was 1991. The Fresh Price of Bel-Air is on TV and Good Vibrations by Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch is blasting on the boom box as you get ready for a night out on the town. This is not an evening for half measures, so the fanny pack stays at [...]Read now -
How to Hack Your Flies & Multiply Your Fly Box
No matter how diligently we may tie flies through the winter and pack line after line of our favorite patterns into our fly boxes, inevitably we will find ourselves thigh deep in some river looking blankly at a piece of broken tippet and our last "Hot Fly" swimming downstream in the mouth of a big fish. Now before [...]Read now -
Learn to Anticipate the Next Hot Hatch
Being born and raised in the Mid-West, my life was intimately connected to land. From working on farms and ranches during my early years, to selling sweet corn on the side of the road to pay for college, the seasons were marked by their own unique rhythms of planting and harvest. From the [...]Read now -
When its Time to Fly Fish With Terrestrials
The astute fly angler doesn't wait until they are on the water before they attempt to match the hatch, but begin the process while driving to stream, and continue to hone their fly choice while trekking down to the water. Each summer and fall, clumsy hopping, crawling, and flying terrestrials (land insects and animals) [...]Read now